Congress To Hear From Gitmo Detainee

Updated on: May 19, 2008 / 4:15 PM
/ The Politico

Capitol Hill will hear from its first former Guantanamo Bay detainee Tuesday at a hearing chaired by Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.).

Murat Kurnaz, born and raised in Bremen, Germany, was picked up shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, and flown to Guantanamo, where he says he was tortured by U.S. interrogators. He was recently the subject of a 60 Minutes profile.

As a result of a Supreme Court ruling, Kurnaz was provided legal counsel in 2004. According to 60 Minutes, his attorney uncovered a file from U.S. military intelligence that read: "criminal investigation task force has no definite link [or] evidence of detainee having an association with al Qaeda or making any specific threat toward the U.S."

Meanwhile, 60 Minutes reported, German intelligence agents told their government that "USA considers Murat Kurnaz's innocence to be proven. He is to be released in approximately six to eight weeks."

The years went on, and Kurnaz was not released. Kurnaz told 60 Minutes that he was tortured for much of the time he was at Guantanamo. "They used to beat me when my head is underwater. They beat me into my stomach and everything," so that he'd have to take a breath while underwater, he said.

He also accused his keepers of electrically shocking him until he was numb and chaining him to the roof of an aircraft hangar for five days, only bringing him down so that a doctor could examine him.

Kurnaz was freed in August 2006 after German Chancellor Angela Merkel personally asked Bush for his release. He has written a book: "Five Years of My Life."

The Department of Defense has denied his allegations of abuse, calling them "not only unsubstantiated and implausible [but] simply outlandish."